Stop & Shop, union reach tentative agreement

After a long weekend during which negotiations between Stop & Shop New England and its five local unions reportedly lasted into the early-morning hours, union leaders said they and the supermarket have reached a tentative agreement.

After a long weekend during which negotiations between Stop & Shop New England and its five local unions reportedly lasted into the early-morning hours, union leaders said they and the supermarket have reached a tentative agreement.

That agreement still needs a legal review before it is to be presented to union members for ratification.

Stop & Shop also posted on its website an update saying the company “was very pleased to announce” that an agreement had been reached.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 328 union spokesman Jim Riley declined to comment on the terms of the negotiated agreement before it is submitted to union members, during a meeting next Sunday.

The time and place of that meeting was not yet available as of Tuesday afternoon.

The previous contract expired on Feb. 23, but was extended a week to avoid a work stoppage.

Employee wages, pensions and health care coverage for part-time employees were the main points of contention during the negotiations.

Health care coverage, especially, held up the talks.

Earlier during the negotiations, Stop & Shop offered to continue health care coverage to those employees until the end of 2013. Starting in January 2014, however, Stop & Shop proposed to discontinue its employer-provided coverage and move those employees to a federal health care exchange in January 2014, when provisions of the Affordable Care Act are scheduled to go into effect.

“There have been some spirited and animated exchanges that have taken place during these negotiations,” union leaders posted on their website, ufcwstopandshopnegotiations.com, and on a Facebook page dedicated to the contact talks.

“We know that the four Health Funds are all different with different levels of benefits and networks and insurance carriers,” read posts early Sunday morning.The Affordable Care Act’s “legal requirements as well as its legal restrictions are literally holding these negotiations hostage.”

Union leaders said they consulted experts to help interpret the law, and draft an agreement.